Application of Knowledge

Class Texts and Materials…Applications and Thoughts

ICEK
This book would facilitate small group discussion for junior high and senior high students. The chapters are to the point. The questions are relevant and thought provoking. The text may serve as reference material for middle and secondary education teachers.

I’m not a lawyer (IANAL), but I am familiar with the selected issues and legalities written to in the text. People should be treated respectfully. The internet is dangerous; proceed with caution.


The Blue Nowhere
Though not a suspenseful “ticking-bomb,” the novel provides a basic introduction to the largess and complexity of the internet.

I glimpsed into a world that heretofore I did not know. The internet has no boundaries, not interpersonal, geographical or political. Countries do not contain it. Languages do not confound it. The only limitation to which the internet is subject is the medium that carries its “message.” I learned about servers, routers and circuitry and viruses, encryptions, and codes. I have come to recognize that the commercial and educational windows-supported use of the web though valuable is superficial, hardly addressing its potential terror and full capacity.
By the time I finished the novel, I knew the internet was wide-open frontier. It is the world’s “wild west.” I experienced a sense of jealousy of those who can challenge it and conquer even a little part of it.


Ethics for the Information Age and Privacy Articles
I appreciated the computing history presented in the first chapter. The chapters on privacy as well as the assigned articles have clearly altered some of my activities on the web. I have a better grasp regarding what permissible for use in an educational setting. I try to model responsible behaviors. I downloaded the “Easy Guide for Windows Users” and have shared it with friends. I recognize the government postures against personal privacy in the name of “anti-terrorism.” I now view personal privacy as critical to liberty. I am thankful for privacy advocacy groups. I also have an answer for those who say they “have nothing to hide.”

The introduction to ethical theories was most interesting. I differentiated between my uncompromising religious world view and a workable social ethic wherein everyone may survive and enjoy freedoms. When an individual on our discussion board blithely selected the “Divine Command Theory” as workable for our diverse society, it gave me pause. Although we may share similar energy, if our orthodoxy is not the same, the only other thing we may share if applying the Divine Command Theory is strife and sorrow. I pray this is not heresy: there will be no peace on earth without convergence and tolerance.


Social Contract Theory and the Internet...Thoughts
I chose the Social Contract Theory because it purported to offer equal liberties, respect, and opportunity to all members of its society. The governing body is charged with the protection against infringement of individual liberties and it is not above its own laws. Social contract implies a common goodness between people. It does mean, however, that some personal preferences are unmet. A community of tolerance is necessary to achieve peace in a complex society.

There are limitations, however, to the theory. The social contract will not work where there is no vision beyond the self. A contract implies at least two parties; it is not unidirectional, and there must be reciprocity between like-minded individuals.

In regard to the internet, its fierce capacity is overwhelmingly huge; it is its own being. The internet exacerbates self-orientation and subjective relativism.

We studied no ethical theory appropriate to harness it. The Social Contract Theory is inadequate by definition; it requires reciprocity. Its justice does not well address willful wrong of multitudes.

My choice of theory is irrelevant. For the first time since starting this course of work, I question the worth of what I am studying in terms of its lasting effect or value to other persons. I must have much more information to make any significant application of ethics to the peculiar connectedness afforded by the internet.

Thank-you for this course and the opportunity to study these issues.